Red (Japanese: レッドRed) is the protagonist of the Pokémon Pocket Monsters manga. He is based on Red from the original Pokémon Red and Green. His full name is Isamu Akai (Japanese: 赤井 勇Isamu Akai), which contains the Japanese word for "red" (赤aka).

In the manga

History

Red is a young Trainer from Pallet Town who is on his way to see Professor Oak in order for him to begin his Pokémon Journey. In Introducing the Pokémon Clefairy!!, he bumps into someone who he immediately recognizes as Green and Green immediately recognizes him as well. It turns out that both of them are Trainers who are about to begin their journey. They end up becoming rivals and race to Professor Oak's lab. On his way to the lab, he encounters a giant Nidoran♂ who warns him to watch out for them as they are monsters. The male Nidoran breathes fire on Red when Red laughed at the advice. Red then encounters a violent male Clefairy and together they defeat a giant Nidoran♂ by accident. Red heads to the lab with Clefairy following him only to find out that Green got there first. After Green chose his Pokémon, Red noticed that Clefairy followed him to the laboratory. He chooses to travel with the Clefairy because he finds his antics amusing. Red is then given a Pokédex from Professor Oak and is sent on a quest to find out more about Pokémon.

His first Pokémon that he caught was an unknown Bug-type, which gets released later on. By the time he caught that, Green already had eight more Pokémon than Red. Red challenges the first Gym in Bring Down the Powerful Opponent Onix!! in which he ends up winning and obtains a Pikachu from Brock. He challenges the second Gym later on using his Clefairy. He defeats the Gym Leader, Misty, and they sought out for the Moon Stone.

In Great Success in the Mountains or the Seas!?, he battles and defeats Lt. Surge on the S.S. Anne. Afterwards, Red and his Pokémon run to the nearest mansion in order to get away from the rain. They stumble across a Gastly that had special powers which were used to lift Clefairy in the air. Deep in the mansion, Red meets Blue, a Trainer who lives there. Red explains to Blue about the storm while looking at the blue item collection. When Clefairy destroyed his collection, Blue was consumed of hatred towards Red and became his rival.

In Big Struggle with the Powerful Opponent Venusaur, he meets Erika and her Venusaur while on an island after his boat was burned by Green's Charmander. Red battles Erika's Venusaur and beats her. Erika stays with Red as her father, the Silph Co. president, is taken hostage by Giovanni's twin brother. Red witnesses Giovanni's brother create multiple copies using a device that Silph made. They were impossible to beat as there was too many copies to deal with. Pikachu finds the weakness to the device and shocks it, which resulted it in getting destroyed.

In The Life-or-Death Magic Duel!!, Red is given a Master Ball from Professor Oak when he tells him the story of Articuno. This led him to go there and heads to a den in the Seafoam Islands which was the home of Articuno. Red meets up with Green after a fiery welcome from Charizard. When they arrived at the den, Articuno was very tough to deal with as it froze many opponents that faced it. With Green and Charmander frozen, it was up to Red. With the help of his Clefairy and Pikachu, Red manages to capture Articuno.

Red faces a challenge from Koga in Save The Chansey! where he hired a Chansey torturer to kidnap the Chansey. The challenge was tough as Red had to go through his Grimer and Koffing. The Chansey manage to escape using their strength and Koga is defeated. Later, Red has a race with his rival, Blue, to the department store to get a flying machine. Unfortunately, Red deals with two members of a motorcycle gang. Blue had his Blastoise trip them whereas Red did all of the work. As the duo kept Red busy, Blue managed to get the flying machine. In Which One is the Real Clefairy!?, Giovanni and his twin brother rerun to have revenge on Red. They plan on using Ditto to disguise itself as Red's Clefairy. However, in a food-eating contest, the plan did not work as Ditto got too full and reverted back to its original form.

In Good Luck at the Big Pokémon Athletic Meet!, Red participates in a sports meet with his two rivals. Red somewhat wins the contest after his Clefairy and Machamp lifted a hefty Snorlax. He participates in a Baseball Tournament and a swimming race. He manages to defeat Green in both challenges, although the latter was harder.

Red meets with Blaine in Fierce Competition at the Pokémon Quiz Battle!!. Blaine challenges him to a Pokémon quiz. The quiz will have Blaine send out a Pokémon everytime Red gets it wrong. As Red got many answers to the quiz wrong, Blaine sent out many Pokémon. In Curry Showdown! Which is the Most Delicious, Red once again competes in a contest against Green but this time, in a curry cooking competition. Red battles Giovanni in Get The Last Badge!! with Giovanni serving as the Gym Leader. Red deals with some dangerous Pokémon Giovanni sends out. Red manages to defeat him with Clefairy and Pikachu.

Red battles the Elite Four beginning in To the Pokémon League!!. Each challenge had a theme which Red had to defeat the Trainer specializing in it to go on to the next Trainer.

Red returns to Professor Oak's laboratory in Save to Pokémon Zoo!! where he takes care of the Pokémon in the lab. Later, Red trains with Green to prepare for the final battle. In The Fake Pikachu!!, he meets a Trainer who was very similar to Red. The Trainer uses it to his advantage to commit many evil deeds.

In The Pokémon Banana League, Red battles the Champion who turns out to be his rival, Green. Afterwards, he battles Giovanni and his twin brother when the two plan on doing something bad. After defeating Giovanni and his brother from world domination in Pallet Town during the post-Indigo League, he continues his journey onto Johto.

He continues his journey in Pokémon Ruby-Sapphire, the sequel to Pokémon Pocket Monsters that takes place in Hoenn, after defeating the Johto Elite Four. While at Hoenn, he meets Professor Birch and challenges him to various contests, in which Professor Birch wins them all. He challenges Norman in There's Someone More Important Than Clefairy?! where he had to retrieve the Balance Badge from his Slakoth that swallowed it. He challenges Roxanne when he arrived in Rustboro City. He heads to Dewford Town with Mr. Briney taking him there. However, they had to deal with Team Magma first.

After his travels in Hoenn, Red continues his journey in Sinnoh in Pocket Monsters DP, the second sequel of Pokémon Pocket Monsters.

Red returned to Johto in Pocket Monsters HGSS where he meets the legendary beasts. It was also where he says his goodbyes to Tyrogue.

Red is currently traveling in the Unova region in Pocket Monsters BW. He meets Professor Juniper there and asks him about choosing a starter Pokémon. Later, Red challenges Cilan, Chili and Cress to a Gym battle using his Clefairy and somehow wins when his Clefairy takes advantage of their Pokémon's attacks by turning them into tea.

Red meets a Conkeldurr and it travels with him.

Characteristics and personality

Unlike his main rival, Red doesn't catch a lot of Pokémon. He has two (later three) favorites, which he keeps outside their Poké Balls. He has caught several others, including Articuno, but never uses them in battle. However, he has used his non-favorites every now and then.

Known

Machoke → Machamp

While Red and hisfriends were in a department store, Machamp, as a Machoke, along with a Caterpie, Butterfree, Kakuna and Ekans were robbing the department store. Red was able to stop Caterpie and its evolutions. But, the Fighting-type Pokémon was the only one left. Clefairy created a distraction for Machoke so Red can catch it. Machoke evolved into Machamp and it became a tough foe for them to handle. It took several tries for Red to catch it and he finally caught it after Clefairy was about to give up. Later, Machamp and Clefairy cheated in the Athletic Meet by disguising himself as Clefairy and flinging a Snorlax away.

Articuno is a legendary Pokémon that was mentioned by Professor Oak while he was contacting Red. The villagers come by and tell Red about it as well. In the next chapter, he notices that there were many frozen objects which was caused by Articuno. When Green and his Charmander was frozen, Red fought Articuno on his own. He catches it with a Master Ball. Articuno returns in Red VS Green!! where it was seen training for the Pokémon League.

Befriended

Temporary

Mew ♀

This Mew is actually a human woman and the assistant to the scientist Bill. She was accidentally transformed into a Mew when she and Bill attempted to try to create the ultimate Pokémon by combining human and Pokémon DNA. After giving them their Moon Stone, Mew and Bill were turned back to their normal selves.

Treecko was in Red's possession for a little while when Ruby traded it for his Pikachu when he wasn't around. Treecko was able to get back to Ruby when it, along with Clefairy and Tyrogue work together to get Pikachu back to Red, his rightful owner.

Red was given an Exeggcute from Professor Oak after the baseball match. They chased and attacked Red and his Pokémon afterwards. Red was shown to have another one in Red VS Green!! where. Since the Exeggcute were with Red temporarily, it is unknown if Red kept them or not.

Pokémon at the baseball match

Pokémon at the curry cooking competition

These Pokémon are seen with Red during the curry cooking competition with Green. It is unknown if these Pokémon belong to him, nor is it known if the Diglett or Onix are the same ones from the baseball game.

Red received this Tyrogue from the Pokémon Fan Club President when he gave him his Togepi. Tyrogue became the third main Pokémon to travel with Red out of his Poké Ball. Tyrogue was released in PMHGSS23 of the HGSS chapter.